What to do with old damaged leaves?

4th week since germination on my autos. Rdwc, flora nutes at 5ml/ea per gal and 3ml of calmag using 2gal tap and 8 gal ro water. H2O2 and bleach cycled every other week.

Had some early deficiencies (no idea what) but they mostly went away since my full res clean-up/change a week ago. Had a humidifier malfunction mid last week that resulted in one night of 99% humidity and soaking wet fan leaves (which is what I suspect some of the blotches are from). All the new growth is looking great.

So what do I do with the older leaves? Leave them as isor do some trimming?

Also, some of the larger fan leaves are blocking some of the new growth. Should I trim those off? One plant seems to be much denser and this harder to lst. A bunch of leaves are covering each other.

Water level is going down daily,ppm staying the same at about 722, ph moves up 0.1 or less per day and is at 5.9 now. Oh, and no more weird crap floating in my res after installing a skimmer.

I wouldn't personally prune any leaves off, regardless of their condition at this point. If anything blocks a bud site, I'd just tuck the leaves.

Mulch

I would look for more air movement and check the back of those leaves with a loupe/scope for mites
As far as removing some it is an individual choice
I leave mine till they drop, just not as photogenic

I guess I'll leave them on and let the plant self-cannibalize. The new growth looks strong, roots are clean and growing strong, and water/ph/ec are all in check. I just need to do something about the bushiness of that one plant. Thanks!

I check daily when I lst and there are no bugs. Plenty of air movement, but not sure if I should have too much blowing directly at the plant. Last time I had direct airflow on the plant the leaves started to get wind burn from the low setting, so now I'm aiming one small filtered fan to the side of the plant so airflow bouncing off the tent wall moves some of the leaves, and another oscillating fan is hanging up top to provide a small bit of wind ont he plants while also circulating air in the entire tent to regulate temps and humidity.

GTConsulting said:

Also, some of the larger fan leaves are blocking some of the new growth.

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Try keeping all the new growth at the top of your plant. In other words sucker those little guys growing down there from little nodes if you can't expose them equalize by LST or other stem manipulation. It's a little bit like growing tomatoes. You don't want want a mess of branches emerging from under your main foliage. It's easy to pinch them off with your fingers without even affecting the leaf right underneath it.

I maintain open airflow always. Minor clean ups will be fine. As far as damaged? If sealed and damage is not spreading(infections)? Leave it. Remove immediately if yellowing color change spreads from wound.

Northwood said:

Try keeping all the new growth at the top of your plant. In other words sucker those little guys growing down there from little nodes if you can't expose them equalize by LST or other stem manipulation. It's a little bit like growing tomatoes. You don't want want a mess of branches emerging from under your main foliage. It's easy to pinch them off with your fingers without even affecting the leaf right underneath it.

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I have a few (1 or 2) small stems w/ pistils showing that are at the bottom sprouting from the first or second nodes. Should I get rid of those? and if so, how? I tried opening up the area to allow direct open lighting to these areas in hopes that they'll grow and stretch to fill the light hole I made, but they barely grew (the surrounding growth just got bushier). Also, if I pinch these off, when is the best time to do so? right b4 lights out, right at lights on? Thanks!

GTConsulting said:

I have a few (1 or 2) small stems w/ pistils showing that are at the bottom sprouting from the first or second nodes. Should I get rid of those? and if so, how? I tried opening up the area to allow direct open lighting to these areas in hopes that they'll grow and stretch to fill the light hole I made, but they barely grew (the surrounding growth just got bushier). Also, if I pinch these off, when is the best time to do so? right b4 lights out, right at lights on? Thanks!

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You've flipped already, or are they just preflowers? I do selectively defoliate - just not much, if any, in the stage of growth yours appear to be in. When you remove suckers or young branches, always cut them off the the main stem they're growing from (the source) so that they don't grow back again and waste the plants strength. If you LST, new nodes will appear in the top canopy where they receive light. But if it's a short internodal distanced indica, then you can't keep them all so the earlier you can choose what to keep the less energy your young plant will waste growing stuff you'll need to cut off later anyway just to keep your plant from choking.

Northwood said:

You've flipped already, or are they just preflowers? I do selectively defoliate - just not much, if any, in the stage of growth yours appear to be in. When you remove suckers or young branches, always cut them off the the main stem they're growing from (the source) so that they don't grow back again and waste the plants strength. If you LST, new nodes will appear in the top canopy where they receive light. But if it's a short internodal distanced indica, then you can't keep them all so the earlier you can choose what to keep the less energy your young plant will waste growing stuff you'll need to cut off later anyway just to keep your plant from choking.

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They're autos, middle of week 4.

GTConsulting said:

They're autos, middle of week 4.

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Well considering I've never grown autos before, you can ignore everything I said. Lol